This invention relates to a plating apparatus and, more particularly, to a program-controlled plating apparatus for increasing plating productivity.
It is general practice with an automatic plating apparatus to employ a program prepared to include instructions for a series of treating steps and treatment times that are necessary to effect plating, and to drive a conveyance mechanism in the manner instructed by the program to convey racks through the required treatments, the racks carrying the articles that are to be plated.
With the conventional automatic plating apparatus of the type described, use of the plating baths must be discontinued one after another, starting a good deal before the workers are scheduled to stop replacing the plated articles, as occurs at the noon recess or at the close of work. This places a limitation upon plating productivity.
A similar problem arises with the conventional program controlled plating apparatus in a case where the treatments and treating times differ because articles of different types are to be plated. When carrying out such plating automatically in accordance with the program, difficulties are encountered in programming and the conveyance mechanism cannot always be utilized effectively. This has the same effect as mentioned above, namely a limitation upon plating productivity.